The invention relates to a header for an agricultural working machine. Conventional headers for agricultural working machines are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,205,422 B2 teaches a header comprising a main frame on which a middle section and at least two side sections adjacent to the middle section are disposed and, a flexible finger bar extending across the width of the header used to cut the crop. The crop is transported by at least one conveyor device disposed behind the finger bar. The conveyor devices used are conveyor belts equipped with grates and which circulate endlessly on the side sections and convey the crop in the direction of the middle section, transversely to the direction of motion of the header during harvesting. The middle section also comprises an endlessly circulating conveyor belt, which extends in the direction of motion of the header during harvesting and feeds the crop to a harvesting machine on which the header is mounted.
Due to the known design, the conveyor belt of the middle section lies in a plane underneath the finger bar and, therefore, the crop drops onto the conveyor belt when discharged from the belts. A vertical gap remains between the conveyor belt and the adjacent conveyor belts of the side sections. The conveyor belt of the middle section feeds the crop discharged thereupon to a food roller equipped with retractable fingers to convey the crop to a feeder housing of the harvesting machine. The conveyor belt of the middle section does not extend all the way to the finger bar. Instead, a region extending in the direction of conveyance of the conveyor belt remains in which crop can collect behind the finger bar. The crop collected thereat is not captured by the conveyor belt. The feed roller is offset so far toward the rear relative to the finger bar that this feed roller also is not suitable for capturing the crop. When crop collects behind the finger bar, this crop is grasped by the grates on the top side of the conveyor belts of the side sections and is drawn underneath these side sections and then falls onto the ground as a loss.
Such inherent operation is disadvantageous for obvious reasons. A further disadvantage arises in harvesting applications in which the crop, such as grain, is cut closely underneath the fruit to be harvested, whereby the portion of straw in the crop picked up by the header decreases significantly. In the case of grain, it is substantially only ears that reach the particular conveyor belt and, therefore the crop stream has a relatively small volume. When the crop reaches the middle section, the above-described situation results in a marked increase in crop losses at the header.